School Bells – Current Affairs – Grade 1 – Week 21 – learning to listen
I am eager to see how the young scholars did with their assignment to practice listening skills with their family members.
Listening is not easy for any of us, no matter what our age.
Here are the scholars now.
Me: Good morning scholars. How are you?
Class. Good morning Mr. Jim. Cookies?
Me: No cookies today, but I will bring some next week.
I am eager to hear what you discovered about listening. Who wants to share?
Sue: It was really hard Mr. Jim. I know what I heard but then mom and dad kept telling me that I did not hear what they said.
Me: How did you let them know what you heard?
Tara: Just like you said. I repeated exactly what I heard, but then they would say that is not what they said The same thing happened with my brother and sister.
Me: Can you give an example Tara?
Sue: They said “Have a good time.” I heard, “Be careful Tara.”
Me: That is a great example Tara. I bet that when you first started learning to use the wheelchair on your own they said, “Be careful Tara a lot.”
Tara: Yes. A lot!
Me: Although our ears carry the sound vibrations, our brain interprets them. When you were very little you just heard sounds. You did not know how to speak words and did not know what they meant. Then you began to store words to match the vibrations in your brain.
Ahmes: Sound vibrations?
Me: Yes. If we could clearly see the sound it would look like this.
(I draw a sample on the board.)
Sofia: In our Italian family everyone talks a lot. There must be a lot of funny lines in the air at once!
(Everyone laughs.)
Me: I am sure that the air would look very busy if we could see all the sound waves!
At any rate, as we learn language we begin to remember what we hear a lot. So, Tara, if you heard “Be careful” a lot you might get in the habit of not listening because you know or think you know what they are going to say. Just like I expect all of you to ask about cookies. So even if you do not I might be “sure” you had.
Steve: As soon as my dad started talking I said, “I am going to do my chores.” Mom and my brother said he said, “I am really proud of you.” I did not hear that because I was already defending myself.
Me: That is a great example Steve. Then what happened?
Steve: He said it again. Everyone in our family had a terrible time hearing what was actually said.
Me: Even the adults?
Steve: Yes. We laughed a lot but they always heard us whining or asking for something.
Me: Yes. Most adults do not do any better than we did as kids.
Susie: Why it is so important that we hear Mr. Jim? Perhaps we could just point to stuff most of the time.
Me: I do not think that would work much better Susie. We also see with your brains. We see what we expect to see. We will practice that next week.
Sam: Our family did better when we would just say one word and have another one in the family repeat back the one word.
Me: I can understand why that might work for many of us sighted people.
Sam: It did not work all the time. If the word was yes and we expected it to be no, we would hear no.
Me: How was this exercise helpful class?
Tara: Our family did not argue as much because we usually only argue about who said or did something. If we don’t hear or see well it is difficult to argue or we start to remember and start laughing.
Me: That is a great reminder Tara. Thank you. Did anyone else learn anything from this exercise?
Steve: Our family found out that it was really hard for adults to hear children and it was really hard for children to hear adults. We also found out we heard dad better than mom.
Me: That is fascinating. Do you have any ideas about the reason for that?
Steve: What you said before Mr. Jim. We kids decided that parents do not have anything new to say and adults do not think that children have anything to say. Mom said that we are taught to pay more attention to what guys say and to ignore woman a lot.
Me: Wow! You all learned a lot. I recommend that all of us keep practicing listening. For next week I would like you to do a similar experiment with your families only this time it is about seeing. You can do this by pretending you are a reporter and then saying what you saw. This could be watching family members do something, watching a television show together or just picking out something public and two or more of you reporting on that. I have written this down. Tommy and Ahmes will you had out the papers please?
Ahmes and Tommy hand them out.
Me: Great job. I learned a lot today. Have a good week.
Class: Goodbye Mr. Jim. Cookies next week!
Me: I won’t forget!
Ring! Ring! Ring!
Written January 11, 2017
I am eager to see how the young scholars did with their assignment to practice listening skills with their family members.
Listening is not easy for any of us, no matter what our age.
Here are the scholars now.
Me: Good morning scholars. How are you?
Class. Good morning Mr. Jim. Cookies?
Me: No cookies today, but I will bring some next week.
I am eager to hear what you discovered about listening. Who wants to share?
Sue: It was really hard Mr. Jim. I know what I heard but then mom and dad kept telling me that I did not hear what they said.
Me: How did you let them know what you heard?
Tara: Just like you said. I repeated exactly what I heard, but then they would say that is not what they said The same thing happened with my brother and sister.
Me: Can you give an example Tara?
Sue: They said “Have a good time.” I heard, “Be careful Tara.”
Me: That is a great example Tara. I bet that when you first started learning to use the wheelchair on your own they said, “Be careful Tara a lot.”
Tara: Yes. A lot!
Me: Although our ears carry the sound vibrations, our brain interprets them. When you were very little you just heard sounds. You did not know how to speak words and did not know what they meant. Then you began to store words to match the vibrations in your brain.
Ahmes: Sound vibrations?
Me: Yes. If we could clearly see the sound it would look like this.
(I draw a sample on the board.)
Sofia: In our Italian family everyone talks a lot. There must be a lot of funny lines in the air at once!
(Everyone laughs.)
Me: I am sure that the air would look very busy if we could see all the sound waves!
At any rate, as we learn language we begin to remember what we hear a lot. So, Tara, if you heard “Be careful” a lot you might get in the habit of not listening because you know or think you know what they are going to say. Just like I expect all of you to ask about cookies. So even if you do not I might be “sure” you had.
Steve: As soon as my dad started talking I said, “I am going to do my chores.” Mom and my brother said he said, “I am really proud of you.” I did not hear that because I was already defending myself.
Me: That is a great example Steve. Then what happened?
Steve: He said it again. Everyone in our family had a terrible time hearing what was actually said.
Me: Even the adults?
Steve: Yes. We laughed a lot but they always heard us whining or asking for something.
Me: Yes. Most adults do not do any better than we did as kids.
Susie: Why it is so important that we hear Mr. Jim? Perhaps we could just point to stuff most of the time.
Me: I do not think that would work much better Susie. We also see with your brains. We see what we expect to see. We will practice that next week.
Sam: Our family did better when we would just say one word and have another one in the family repeat back the one word.
Me: I can understand why that might work for many of us sighted people.
Sam: It did not work all the time. If the word was yes and we expected it to be no, we would hear no.
Me: How was this exercise helpful class?
Tara: Our family did not argue as much because we usually only argue about who said or did something. If we don’t hear or see well it is difficult to argue or we start to remember and start laughing.
Me: That is a great reminder Tara. Thank you. Did anyone else learn anything from this exercise?
Steve: Our family found out that it was really hard for adults to hear children and it was really hard for children to hear adults. We also found out we heard dad better than mom.
Me: That is fascinating. Do you have any ideas about the reason for that?
Steve: What you said before Mr. Jim. We kids decided that parents do not have anything new to say and adults do not think that children have anything to say. Mom said that we are taught to pay more attention to what guys say and to ignore woman a lot.
Me: Wow! You all learned a lot. I recommend that all of us keep practicing listening. For next week I would like you to do a similar experiment with your families only this time it is about seeing. You can do this by pretending you are a reporter and then saying what you saw. This could be watching family members do something, watching a television show together or just picking out something public and two or more of you reporting on that. I have written this down. Tommy and Ahmes will you had out the papers please?
Ahmes and Tommy hand them out.
Me: Great job. I learned a lot today. Have a good week.
Class: Goodbye Mr. Jim. Cookies next week!
Me: I won’t forget!
Ring! Ring! Ring!
Written January 11, 2017
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